The White Dog of Crooms Hill

Okay – so now I’ve been asked three times in as many days who the strange white dog who sits in the greenery halfway up Crooms Hill is. I think the sudden interest is that with the St Marys Gate entrance to the park being closed just now there is a constant stream of people being forced to climb the usually quiet Crooms Hill to the next available entrance (my favourite, actually, up by the White House, via that dear little country lane.)

Annette describes her as being like an unusually coloured Alsatian/a not especially fluffy Husky, and on Sunday afternoon was sitting quietly behind the railings allowing visitors to photograph her. She doesn’t appear to be a typical guard dog.

I’ve heard of this dog before, and even vaguely remember the sign – it’s not new – but have never seen the dog – and frankly, I forgot all about her. I went up there yesterday to find evidence, but only discovered the delightfully enigmatic sign that her humans, presumably frustrated at sundry calls from the RSPCA demanding to know about the ‘poor neglected doggy’, have erected.

It’s clearly her little patch, and I’m guessing that since she’s inside the railings she doesn’t live at any of the Crooms Hill addresses at all, but at somewhere that backs onto the park, such as MaCartney House. I don’t know her name, or anything about her, but perhaps someone else does.

She must be quite a sight – everyone who’s written to me so far has intimated that seeing her affected them somehow. Perhaps it’s the unusual colouring. Annette says it was a very strange sight going past- rather like a Victorian sideshow of a mermaid or something. Chris agrees, sayingit was quite eerie, in a silly way, though Jo points out that it’s just another one of those weird things you see in Greenwich.

It puts me in mind of the cat who used to hang out around William IV’s statue – I think his/her humans were at Sabo’s newsagent – you know the one with the comedy small ads – if memory serves.

I did check in my nutty books about occult and supernatural stuff around here that there aren’t any ‘white dog’ ghost-type traditions round here and you’ll all heave a sigh of relief to know that I didn’t find any. The dog is most definitely real, you’re not imagining her But who is she?

A spot of crowd-sourcery needed, please…

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not lost dog

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 8:18 am and is filed under Weird Greenwich. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Yes, she’s an almost spectral presence in the gloom of the undergrowth, being much bigger than most white dogs you see (such as west highlands, jack russells etc) and made more unusual by her pale eyes, if I remember correctly.

I can see why people wonder if she’s OK as it doesn’t look like she’s in someone’s garden, it’s more like an abandoned corner of the park.

My daughters and I call her the Comedy Dog because she has such great comic timing. She (and I don’t know why I assume it’s a she) puts her head through the railings and does a very good impression of being stuck – and just about when the tourists are beginning to dial for help for this poor winsome creature, she pulls her head easily away and wanders off. Great local entertainer.

Sorry to bust your supernatural myths but I am a human of said dog.
She is enjoying her peoople watching during the Olympic and paralympic games. The accents and food offerings are much more varied these days. Unfortunetely her raw meat only diet is suffering, and her liking for chocolate biscuits growing. She enjoys digging holes in the lawn and rolling in fox mess after a bath. Don’t be fooled by those longing eyes, she gets all she needs here on the hill. She is mostly Siberian Husky, but still trys to get under the duvet.

I’ll withold on her name as we have had problems of people either trying to ‘rescue’ or steal her from the garden.